Gomes' complaint alleges absentee ballot abuses

Updated 6:13 pm, Saturday, August 4, 2012

Locked in a three-way primary for his state Senate seat, Gomes' campaign submitted a complaint to the state Elections Enforcement Commission and Secretary of the State Denise Merrill alleging widespread absentee ballot abuses.

According to the Town Clerk, as of Friday 940 applications for absentee ballots have been issued.

The chances of a state investigation being launched and concluded before the Aug. 14 Democratic primary between Gomes, predecessor Ernest E. Newton II and state Rep. Andres Ayala are very slim, based on history.

But Marty Dunleavy, Gomes' campaign manager, acknowledged that wasn't the expectation. Although the campaign would prefer state officials take immediate action, Dunleavy said the complaint sets the table for Gomes to contest the outcome of a close race decided by absentee ballots.

"If he loses by 10 and we find 20 who shouldn't have voted by absentee ... we have recourse," Dunleavy said.

Both the Ayala and Newton campaigns denied any wrongdoing, although Newton also pointed a finger at Ayala, arguing the campaign has worked to shut Newton and Gomes out of senior complexes.

"We follow the letter of the law," said Americo Santiago, who is helping run Ayala's campaign.

Some would argue Gomes is paranoid or using the standard tactic of filing a pre-election complaint and announcing it to plant seeds of doubt in voters' minds about his opponents' integrity.

But Bridgeport is notorious for absentee ballot abuses. Hearst Connecticut Newspapers in October reported that since 1988 at least 17 fraud cases had been investigated by the SEEC and 14 resulted in some form of penalty.

And Town Clerk Alma Maya, a Democrat, said although she has seen high numbers of absentee ballot applications during her five years in office, long-time staffers consider 940 applications unusual compared to prior years. She said campaigns have begun to rely on the absentee ballots to win elections.

"So it becomes a competition over who's going to do it the best," she said.

Typically campaign supporters visit the Town Clerk's office and sign out absentee ballot applications to distribute to eligible voters upon request. The voters are supposed to fill out the documents, mail them to the city, and Maya's office mails back the ballot.

To qualify for an absentee ballot, voters must be serving in the armed forces, away from the city on election day, suffering illness or a physical disability, unable to vote for religious reasons or working as an election official.

Maya said the campaigns can then, using public documents in her office, track the course of the process. It is illegal to help voters fill out the ballots, but the campaigns are allowed to contact voters and remind them to turn them in.

Gomes' complaint to state elections enforcement officials was filed by supporter Robert Walsh, a former City Council member. Walsh believes staff for Ayala and Newton are taking advantage of seniors in housing complexes and individuals who are at a disadvantage due to age or language barriers by helping them fill out absentee ballots.

Walsh also alleged in some cases new voters who do not have a valid excuse to vote absentee are fooled into doing so, again so that the Ayala or Newton campaigns can try to control the outcome.

"We definitely think we are playing by the rules while other sides are not," Walsh said.

Dunleavy also alleged individuals who were penalized in the past by the state are distributing absentee ballots for the rival campaigns. He and Walsh declined to provide names in the SEEC complaint to avoid making false accusations.

Santiago said the alarm over 940 absentee ballot applications is unfounded and it should actually be much higher. He said critics could be accused of voter suppression.

"There will be hundreds of thousands of individuals who should be able to vote by absentee who are not because they don't know the process or have any information on doing it," Santiago said.

Newton said while Ayala may dominate with the senior absentee ballot vote, he is not worried.

"We have our own list of sick and shut in people through our churches," Newton said.

Maya said any absentee ballot applications not mailed this weekend will likely arrive too late for August 14.

"Whatever work does not get done by a campaign this weekend, you can forget it," Maya said.